From the Chili Kitchen to the Hotel Lobby, the Launch of Palin 2016

Sarah Palin has left the door cracked on a possible 2016 run for president of the US, saying she is interested in the campaign and adding that she thinks it’s time the US elects a female head of state. In Des Moines this weekend for the Iowa Freedom Summit, the former Republican vice presidential candidate told the Washington Post that she’s “seriously interested” in a possible campaign.Sarah Palin is “of course” interested in running for president in 2016 and hopes to see a woman get the job, she said in an interview released Friday. At least a dozen of them ate downtown tonight, at Centro, a few blocks from the Marriott that’s become a local answer to The Tabard for traveling journalists and politicians.

Palin, the GOP’s 2008 vice-presidential nominee, said she stood by comments she made Thursday in Las Vegas to ABC News, where she first expressed enthusiasm about potentially competing for the Republican presidential nomination. “I am. And, hinting at her own interest in potentially joining the race, she suggested that gender might drive her involvement. “America has had enough of seeing that sign on the Oval Office door saying, ‘No Girls Allowed.’ I know that,” she said. She (very publicly) contemplated a run in 2012 before eventually announcing that she wouldn’t run. “It doesn’t have to be myself, but yes … happy to drive that competition, because competition will make everyone better and produce more and be more candid regarding their solutions they will offer this country,” she said. “I am very interested in that competitive process and, again, not necessarily me.” While she “doesn’t necessarily” have to run, she is “happy to drive the competition.” “Big competition, and that competition in the GOP … will surface that candidate who can take on Hillary, be ready for Hillary and show the nation what it is going to take to get the country back on the right track — because we can’t afford status quo, because status quo lately has been Latin for, ‘We are getting screwed,’ and status quo has got to go,” she said. The event was hosted for the show “Amazing America with Sarah Palin. (AP Photo/The Sun, Mikayla Whitmore ) On Friday, ABC News reported that Florida Senator Marco Rubio was taking steps toward running for the presidency.

From the Washington Post’s Dan Balz: Many hours and much sweat equity can be spent, by reporters, to get in the right place to lob questions at politicians. Karlinsky asked her if she ever mulled over a White House bid. “Yeah, I mean, of course, when you have a servant’s heart, when you know that there is opportunity to do all you can to put yourself forward in the name of offering service, anybody would be interested,” said Palin. Palin was referring to the controversy over whether the NFL team purposefully defeated footballs at their game last Sunday to gain an advantage over the Indianapolis Colts. Who wouldn’t be interested when they have been blessed with opportunities to speak about what is important to this country and for this country?” Still, Palin said that she is not yet ramping up a national political operation. Palin mingled with the press while she served wild boar chili at a “Hunt.Fish.Feed” event, sponsored by the Sportsman Channel, at a local Salvation Army center.

Actually, in a video interview conducted while Palin served chili and reporter Neal Karlinsky stood behind her moving arm, Palin said… let’s go to the transcript. She’s got fans though – a billion Facebook followers, it seems like – and they may want her to continue to make an effort to bash the Obama administration and Democrats and remain at least tangential to the political process. That’s why she posts stuff like this on her Facebook page, a poster of herself hitchhiking with a note about someone wanting to pick her up and take her to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest Washington, D.C.

On the campaign trail last year, Palin traveled extensively to bolster her handpicked candidates, including stops in Iowa with Republican Joni Ernst, who won a Senate seat. Even Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, had been courting media attention with hours of pre-summit interviews. “There are some people speaking tomorrow that aren’t going to be candidates,” said Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann after a Friday night reporter meet-and-greet. “Sarah Palin isn’t going to be a candidate.” That remains a safe assumption, but it not what she told reporters when they walked up to her and flashed cameras.